GORAN IVANISEVIC STILL HAS A RACKET SHORTAGE . TEN YEARS LATER IT’S LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN . JOHN MCENROE , MICHAEL CHANG , IVAN LENDL ALL PLAYING IN THE ATP SENIOR TENNIS EVENT

Written by: Staff on 17th October 2014

GORAN IVANISEVIC STILL HAS A RACKET SHORTAGE . TEN YEARS LATER IT'S LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN . JOHN MCENROE , MICHAEL CHANG , IVAN LENDL ALL PLAYING IN THE ATP SENIOR TENNIS EVENT

epa02985048 Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia returns the ball to Yvgeny Kafelnikov of Russia during their macth at the gala tournament Tennis Classics in Papp Laszlo Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary, 29 October 2011. HUNGARY OUT EPA/IMRE FOLDI |

LA GRANDE SFIDA

ATP CHAMPIONS TOUR

17-18 OCTOBER, 2014

MILAN & GENOA, ITALY

For interviews, reports and the latest videos from the ATP Champions Tour, please go to: http://www.atpchampionstour.com

For latest scores, news and gossip, follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/championstennis or visit our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-ATP-Champions-Tour/111815998829329?v=wall

GORAN RUNS OUT OF RACQUETS. AGAIN.

In November 2000, eight months before he finally won Wimbledon, Goran Ivanisevic made history of a different kind when he became the first player ever to retire from a match due to, in the words of chair umpire Gerry Armstrong, ‘lack of appropriate equipment’.

In Brighton, England, he was trailing Hyung-taik Lee 5-7, 7-6, 1-3 when he smashed the third and final racquet he had in his bag.

On Friday night in Genoa, Italy, it happened again, although this time it was more due to bad luck than bad temper.

The Croatian, like in 2000, had arrived in Italy with only a couple of racquets in his bag, and watched helplessly as both suffered broken strings during a match against John McEnroe at the Grand Sfida, a new event on the ATP Champions Tour.

Unlike in Brighton, when Ivanisevic refused to borrow a racquet from his doubles partner Ivan Ljubicic, the Croatian accepted the generosity of someone in the capacity crowd, and was able to complete a 6-2, 7-6 victory over McEnroe.

SPLIT, CROATIA – Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia jubilates after winning the final against Britain’s Greg Rusedski at the Croatian Indoor ATP Tour tournament in Split, 08 February 1998. Ivanisevic beat Rusedski 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5).

‘It’s different today to what happened 14 years ago,” said Ivanisevic. “I’m a different person now, a reformed character. I don’t throw my racquets anymore. But still, I wasn’t expecting to have to beg someone from the crowd to borrow their racquet. Never in the nine years I’ve played on the Champions Tour have I broken a racquet, and tonight I broke two. The strings just went. And then I found myself in an awkward situation. I asked John if I could borrow one of his racquets, but he said ‘no’, so then a lovely gentleman from the crowd gave me a racquet. As it happens it is the same racquet I played with 20 years ago, my old Head Prestige. And actually I didn’t play badly. And that annoyed John even more! I signed the racquet and I put a nice white grip on it for the guy, so hopefully he didn’t mind. Everyone here in Genoa has been nice today and it’s been a great atmosphere. It’s been a real pleasure to play in Genoa.’’

So how does he reflect on that moment in Brighton, 14 years ago?

“That wasn’t even the worst day I had on-court,” he said. “I mean, it was a bad day, but the worst day was a couple of months later when I played first round of quallies at the Australian Open and the court was so far away I was wandering around for 15 minutes trying to find it. That was when I said to myself, ‘man, this is bad.’ Being defaulted for no racquets is bad, but first round quallies on court one million at the Australian Open, that was the wake up call that made me go on to win Wimbledon!’

McEnroe was less amused.

“I don’t know where to start. I got totally outplayed,” he said. “I’m disappointed because the crowd were really into it. I mean the guy didn’t really have his own racquet! I didn’t want to give him my racquet because he would have definitely beaten me badly with it and that would have looked really bad. So I pretended that I didn’t have any extra racquets. The whole situation was pretty embarrassing, but I suppose I’ve been in worse situations.”

In the other match on Friday, Ivan Lendl defeated Michael Chang 6-4, 6-2.

The event will now conclude on Saturday in Milan, with Ivanisevic facing Lendl in the final. McEnroe and Chang will clash in the 3rd/4th place play-off.

For more information, please go to www.atpchampionstour.com

SCHEDULE OF PLAY

Friday 17th October

Genoa

Goran Ivanisevic d. John McEnroe 6-2, 7-6

Ivan Lendl d. Michael Chang 6-4, 6-2

Saturday 18th October

Milan

4pm

3/4 Play-off – McEnroe vs. Chang

Final – Ivanisevic vs. Lendl

Watch Tim Henman and Goran Ivanisevic watch THAT Wimbledon semifinal … together -http://goo.gl/11ti2g

Facing Federer: Mark Philippoussis remembers his 2003 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer – http://goo.gl/vpo60h

What’s in your bag? Tim Henman rummages through the belongings of one of his fellow ATP Champions Tour stars. But whose bag is it? – http://goo.gl/u8al7C

For other video content from the ATP Champion Tour, click here: http://www.atpchampionstour.com/multimedia/video-landing.aspx

Topics: ATP Champions Tour, Goran Ivanisevic, Ivan Lendl, John Mcenroe, Michael Chang, Tennis

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls_com says:

October 17, 2014 at 8:18 pm

@OfficialGoran STILL HAS A RACKET SHORTAGE. TEN YEARS LATER IT’S LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN. @McEnroeTweets- http://t.co/5M5Ac9UqbX #tennis